Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Lipscomb's House Searched, New Details Emerge

The Memphis Police Department (MPD) investigated Sunday’s statuary rape charge against Robert Lipscomb, the former director of the city’s office of Housing and Community Development (HCD), back in 2010.

An affidavit filed Monday for a warrant to search Lipscomb’s home said the case was assigned to an MPD investigator in February 2010, after Lipscomb’s first alleged contact with the minor in May 2003.

That affidavit gives the full history of the allegation against Lipscomb that has sent shockwaves through the community and led to nine new allegations against Lipscomb, his resignation from the city and the board of Lemoyne-Owen College, and the possible suspension of his job at the Memphis Housing Authority.

The affidavit is the statement of Sgt. James Taylor, who is assigned the MPD’s Internet Crime Against Children task force and its Human Trafficking Unit. In the affidavit, Taylor said that in 2010 a male walked into MPD’s South Main station and said he wished to file a complaint against a city employee and told officers there that he had been sexually assaulted by Lipscomb.

Here’s how the affidavit relays the events:

“(Redacted) stated in May 2003, he was walking to his home on Britton from a school track meet and was approached by Robert Lipscomb, who was driving a Lexus SUV, black in color. (Redacted) stated Lipscomb offered him a ride home. (Redacted) stated after getting in the vehicle, Lipscomb told him he needed to make a quick stop before going home. (Redacted) stated that Lipscomb parked his SUV on a side street and then Lipscomb grabbed him by the back of his neck and pushed his head into his (crotch) area and forced him to perform oral sex. (Redacted) stated after the sex was completed, Lipscomb gave him $60 cash and told him to call him. (Redacted) stated he got out of the SUV and left.

“(Redacted) stated after this incident, he never told anyone what happened and his family moved to south Memphis in the area of Third and Crump. (Redacted) stated after he moved, Lipscomb began contacting him and sending him money every other day via Western Union receipts. (Redacted) advised Lipscomb had bailed him out of jail on one occasion and repeatedly told him to keep his mouth shut about the sexual encounter they had together. (Redacted) advised he told Lipscomb to leave him alone or he would contact the police.”

The affidavit states that a sex crimes investigator could not locate the male accuser. But a family member said that he often slept at the Union Mission. That, according to the affidavit, was the end of MPD’s investigation in 2010.

In August, the male accuser again contacted MPD. Two officers traveled to Everett, Washington, to follow up on the complaint from 2010. In that interview, the male accuser repeated the same facts he reported in 2010 and added that he had performed oral sex on Lipscomb more than a dozen times.

MPD interviewed Lipscomb on Sunday, and he said that he knew the male from working in the community. He said that his last contact with the male accuser was in February 2015 via email.

All of that led Sgt. Taylor to believe Lipscomb’s home did contain evidence in the case and was the reason the search warrant was issued.

The Monday search of Lipscomb’s home yielded a Dell desktop computer, a black iPad mini, folders, documents, and an Olympus camcorder.